DVD Showdown

By Jim Krane

2-Jul-01

As the personal computer gets shoved out of the spotlight at the PC Expo trade show, a three-way battle is heating up over standards for recordable digital video devices. Analysts say the battle is vital for electronics makers, but not for consumers -- yet.The just-emerging DVD recorders -- employing three competing, incompatible platforms -- still are too expensive for most users. ``There will have to be some coalescing of the technology,'' said Judith Abrams, principal of the market research firm TechIntelligence. ``Right now, it's too confusing for the consumer.''Panasonic fired the show's first volley. The electronics maker announced the October release of a stand-alone $1,000 home entertainment recorder that uses a platform called DVD-RAM. The sleek silver or black machine allows users to record TV shows or other video on highcapacity, rewritable DVD-RAM discs that can hold up to 9.4 gigabytes of data. One problem, though. The DVD-RAM format isn't viewable on the majority of DVD players. So Panasonic also allows you to record in the single-use DVD-Recordable format supported by most players.Panasonic is joined by Hitachi, JVC, Toshiba and Samsung in pushing the DVD-RAM standard, which also will be released on PC drives that cost about $600. Last week, a phalanx of companies that support a separate recording format -- DVD+RW (DVD-plus-rewritable) -- announced that PC juggernaut Dell Computer would adopt their standard.Unlike Panasonic's technology, the DVD+RW format, set to hit the market in the fall, will be compatible with most current DVD players. Besides Dell, companies backing the DVD+RW camp include Hewlett-Packard, Philips Electronics, Sony Corp., Ricoh and Yamaha Corp.If that weren't confusing enough, Pioneer Electronics has already released DVD recorders that use a third format, DVD-RW.Pioneer's $850 version is showing up in computers sold by Apple, Compaq and Sony (which is toying with two of the three formats), and will emerge as a home audio component this fall, said Abrams.

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